Ambulance drones could bring defibrillators in minutes

A graduate student at Delft University of Technology in Netherlands has created a prototype drone that can autonomously navigate to a location in minutes and deliver a defibrillator, a device that can help reestablish normal heart rhythm.

Product engineering student Alec Momont of the university's Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering created the drone, which has three rotors and an on-board defibrillator.

The drone would basically be like a mobile version of an automated external defibrillator (AED), which are lightweight, portable, battery-operated devices often found in shopping malls, transport stations and convention centers.

The prototype also has a webcam so that people on the scene of a cardiac arrest can communicate with emergency personnel and follow instructions about how to care for the patient.

The 4kg drone has a carbon-fiber frame and 3D-printed micro-structures. It can navigate via GPS and finds its way to a location using a caller's mobile phone signal. It can fly about 100 kilometers per hour and is able to carry another 4kg worth of payload.